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Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Snow Days (Jill)

During this winter, we’ve had a few snow days. The
kids rejoice, and I immediately start mentally rearranging my day. You’d think
snow days would give me the opportunity to get lots of writing done. But that’s
not the case. Between monitoring social media time, the kids' anime pop music that
disturbs my train of thought, and making sure we stay on a schedule, there’s
precious little time to sink into a character’s skin or edit my way to a better
scene. So it’s a constant struggle when the kids are home.

When we first moved here, we used one of the rooms as
an office, but that was converted into a bedroom when our second child came
along. Now my “office” is only a corner of the dining room, next to the big window.
This area provides little to no seclusion from domestic distractions. In the
summer, the aroma of fresh-cut grass from our neighbors’ lawn-mowing efforts drifts
in. In the fall, birds play at the bird feeder and the trees change color. But
in the winter, this corner becomes a drafty cell. This year as a Christmas present
to myself, I invested in some fuzzy, fingerless gloves, so I don’t lose my hands
to frostbite. Not sexy, but they do the job.

My complaint probably makes it sound like I hate
people or at least hate the people in my family. This isn’t true. I just don’t
have the ability to filter out the unnecessary noise and focus on my work. So
when there’s a snow day, I do my best to put my writing projects on hold.

Although the distractions are, well, distracting, I’ve learned this
is where God needs me, doing what He wants me to do. It also helps to remember
my kids won’t be home forever. They need a mom, now. When they’re gone and on
their own, hopefully they’ll still need me, but not in the same way. A brief phone
call or text message may be enough. And I’ll probably wish they were here to
play annoying anime music to distract me.

So for now, I’ll use the snow days to enjoy my kids’
company, anime music and all.

2 comments:

Thanks for this reminder, Jill! I tend to get frustrated when my boys interrupt what I was hoping would be writing time, but you're so right that they won't be home forever, and ironically I'm sure I'll miss their distractions once I have entire days to fill with nothing but writing :)